Poemas del río Wang

We are back

from our four-day tour from Lemberg/Lwów and Galicia, organized by us together with the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association. We have roamed about the old town of Lwów, we have followed the path of the hidden relics of the former Jewish quarter, we have witnessed in the cemetery of Lyczaków – the Polish pantheon – the rivalry of the various monuments to define the identity of the city, and at the forced labor camp of Janowska, in front of the almost imperceptible plaque on the wall of the Kleparów railway station the men said kaddish for the five hundred thousand Galician victims deported from here to the death camp of Belżec. Setting out towards Tarnopol, we tracked down the two decaying synagogues in Chortkov, from where the community of the important Budapest synagogue at Teleki square – the former Chortkover Kloyz – comes, and the virtually unknown large Jewish cemetery in Buchach, the intellectual center of the former South Eastern Galicia, from where such figures come as Sigmund Freud and Simon Wiesenthal, the greatest early 20th-century Russian book publisher Josif Knebel and the first Nobel Prize of Hebrew literature Shmuel Yosef Agnon, whose birthplace – today with a memorial plaque – is perhaps the only house that survived the breakdown of the Jewish quarter and its synagogues accomplished in Soviet times. And on the last day we ran down in a partisan action a hundred kilometers to south to photograph the several hundred beautiful tombstones of the three Hasidic cemeteries laying at the border of Galicia and Bukovina. We will report in detail on all this in the following days.

A – Lemberg/Lwów; B – Czortków/Chortkiv; C – Buczacz/Buchach; D – Stanislawów/Ivano-Frankivsk; E – Kosev; F – Kuty; G – Vizhnitsa. See it full screen.

On the way home I asked our fellow travelers what touched them the most during the journey. Many of them told about the still almost palpable past time on the houses and squares and in the inner courtyards of Lwów, the Polish and Yiddish shop labels unfolding from below the peeling plaster (which we will soon present on a map), and at the same time the still pulsating liveliness of the city. The picturesque solitude of the several thousand gravestones of the cemetery of Buchach stretching along the white dirt road outside the town. The discovery of the roots, from which so many strands of modern Jewish cultural life rise, and to which usually only unlocalizable and exotic names refer, and now they are here, visibly and palpably, in their own reality.

This inscription happens to be scraped out from below the plaster by ourselves… but more about this later.

Many people have suggested how willingly they would visit other places of the Eastern European region’s Jewish heritage with me as a guide. And I would willingly take other people to the places which I have been researching and visiting for years, either alone or in the company of Két Sheng, our Hebrew expert and Wang Wei, the great connoisseur of Spanish Jews. Considering the possibilities, the following ways have been outlined for the next months:

- Two more travels to Lemberg/Lwów: one at the weekend of 25 July, at the usual time of the yearly Klezmer festival of the city, and the other in September, when several people have time for it. Both would be four-day journeys, and in contrast to the present large Galician tour we would only visit the city in detail. If only a few people go, I will organize railroad sleeping cars, and if more, then an autobus from Budapest: of course whoever wants can come with his/her own car, too. I will try to find a cheap hotel in the center so that everyone could move freely without the bus as well.

- The renowned “way of the Jewish wine” from the Hungarian Tokaj to Southern Poland could be visited in two parts. The first one, the Hasidic settlements in the Tokaj wine region with their beautiful wooden synagogues and cemeteries can be visited in one or two days, while the way to the North through the Slovakian Košice, Prešov and Bardejov to Nowy Sącz in Poland – an important center of Polish Hasidism, which gave rabbis to several communities along the road – and the surrounding little towns in three more days: in case of a few participants with a small bus, and if much more come, then with a large one. The first such way would be organized around mid-July, and it could be repeated one or more times until the end of the autumn.

- Galician shtetl tours: the Jewish small towns from Lesko to Brody and the fortress synagogue of Lutsk to the Hasid cemeteries in Bukovina. This is a minimum of four-five day tour, by bus or by car, adjusted to the time and interest of the participants.

- Odessa and the Crimea: the great dream which everyone speaks with awe about, but the question is how many would actually undertake it. To do it all one needs at least a week, but what we would see worths the fee: the Jewish quarter of the city, the Moldavanka, the scene of Isaac Babel’s stories, the Karaite towns and cemeteries of the Crimea, on which we will write soon, the Orthodox and Armenian monasteries, the Khan’s palace in Bakhchisaray…

If you are interested in any of the above, write us in this week at wang@studiolum.com, suggesting a date as well. On the basis of the previous discussions and the proposals to be expected we will announce in the next week the final dates, routes and the expected costs. Of course, if you organize a group or a way for yourself, I willingly undertake to guide it as well. And in the meantime I continue publishing the reports on Lemberg/Lwów, Galicia and the region’s Jewish heritage, for which I will soon open a separate collective post. Keep with us.

All our posts on the Eastern European Jewish cultural heritage

Estamos de vuelta

de nuestra gira de cuatro días a Lemberg / Lwów y Galizia, organizada por nosotros conjuntamente con la Asociación Húngara de Cultura Judía. Hemos callejeado por el casco antiguo de Lwów y rastreado las reliquias escondidas del antiguo barrio judío, hemos sido testigos en el cementerio de Lyczaków —el panteón polaco— de la pugna que mantienen los diferentes monumentos por marcar la identidad de la ciudad, y en el campo de concentración de Janowska, ante la placa apenas visible en una pared de la estación de Kleparów, la comitiva entonó un kadish por las quinientas mil víctimas deportadas desde aquí hasta el campo de exterminio de Belzec. Partiendo hacia Tarnopol localizamos las dos sinagogas en ruinas de Chortkov, de donde proviene la comunidad de la importante sinagoga de la plaza Teleki de Budapest —la antigua Chortkover Kloyz—, y llegamos al gran cementerio judío, hoy prácticamente ignorado, de Buchach, centro intelectual de la vieja Galizia sudoriental, cuna de personalidades como Sigmund Freud y Simon Wiesenthal, del más importante editor ruso de principios del siglo XX, Josif Knebel, y del primer Premio Nobel de la literatura hebrea, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, cuya casa natal —hoy señalada con una placa— es tal vez la única que sobrevivió a la destrucción, ya en época soviética, del barrio judío con sus antiguas sinagogas. Y el último día emprendimos una acción partisana, a un centenar de kilómetros al sur, para fotografiar los cientos de hermosas lápidas de los tres cementerios jasídicos que se encuentran en la frontera de Galizia con Bukovina. Sobre todo ello informaremos detalladamente en los próximos días.

A – Lemberg/Lwów; B – Czortków/Chortkiv; C – Buczacz/Buchach; D – Stanislawów/Ivano-Frankivsk; E – Kosev; F – Kuty; G – Vizhnitsa. Ver a pantalla completa.

De camino a casa preguntamos a nuestros compañeros qué les había impresionado más del viaje. Muchos dijeron que la presencia del pasado, aún tangible en casas, plazas, y todavía más en los patios interiores de Lwów; los letreros de las tiendas en polaco y en yidis que asoman por debajo de las costras de escayola (que presentaremos pronto sobre un mapa), y al mismo tiempo esa vivacidad exultante de la ciudad. También, la soledad de los varios miles de lápidas del cementerio de Buchach, que se extiende a lo largo de un camino de tierra blanca, sobre una colina, fuera de la ciudad. El descubrimiento de estos lugares que son las raíces de tantos episodios de la moderna vida cultural judía, y que por lo general solo eran nombres ilocalizables y exóticos, pero que de pronto estaban ahí, visibles, palpables en su imponente realidad.

Con nuestras manos descubrimos el letrero debajo del cemento… luego volveremos sobre esto.

Muchos sugirieron que de buen grado visitarían otros lugares de la herencia judía de esta región de Europa oriental con nosotros de guía. Y nosotros estaríamos encantados de recorrer de nuevo con otros grupos los lugares que hemos investigado o solo soñado durante años, bien solos o en compañía de Ket Sheng, nuestro experto en hebreo, y Wang Wei, buen conocedor de los judios españoles. Teniendo en cuenta nuestras posibilidades hemos esbozado estas rutas para los próximos meses:

- Dos viajes más a Lemberg / Lwów: uno el fin de semana del 25 de julio, aprovechando las fechas anuales del festival klézmer de la ciudad, y otro en septiembre, cuando hay otra gente que tiene tiempo para hacerlo. Ambos serían viajes de cuatro días, y en contraste con el actual de gran recorrido por Galizia, esta vez nos dedicaríamos a visitar la ciudad en detalle. Si se apunta poca gente, iríamos en coches cama de ferrocarril; si hubiera más personas fletaríamos un autobús desde Budapest: por supuesto quien quiera puede viajar con su propio coche. Trataríamos de encontrar un hotel barato en el centro para poder movernos con comodidad y libremente.

- La famosa «ruta del vino judío» desde el Tokai húngaro al sur de Polonia podría recorrerse en dos etapas. La primera, por los asentamientos jasídicos de la región vinícola de Tokai, con sus hermosas sinagogas de madera y cementerios se puede hacer en uno o dos días, mientras que el camino hacia el Norte a través de Košice, Prešov y Bardejov eslovacos hasta Nowy Sacz en Polonia —centro importante del hasidismo polaco, que dio rabinos a varias comunidades a lo largo de la carretera—, más los pequeños pueblos de los alrededores, en tres días más: en el caso de contar con pocos participantes, iríamos en microbús, y si vinieran más, entonces un autobús normal. La primera de estas giras se podría organizar hacia mediados de julio, y podría repetirse una o más veces hasta final de otoño.

- Recorrido por los shtetl de Galizia: los pequeños pueblos judíos, de Lesko a Brody y de la sinagoga-fortaleza de Lutsk a los cementerios jasídicos de Bucovina. Se necesitan alrededor de cuatro o cinco días de viaje en autobús o en coche, ajustables al tiempo y a los intereses específicos de los viajeros.

- Odessa y Crimea: un gran sueño por el que todos suspiran, pero la pregunta es cuántos realmente se atreven a llevarlo a cabo. Cuanto se necesita es una semana, y lo que veríamos en ella merece la pena: el barrio judío de la ciudad, Moldavanka, escenario de las historias de Isaac Babel, las ciudades caraítas y los cementerios de la guerra de Crimea, sobre los que vamos a escribir en breve, los monasterios ortodoxos y armenios, el palacio del Khan en Bajchisarái…

Si estáis interesados en alguno de estos viajes, escribidnos durante esta semana a wang@studiolum.com, sugiriendo también vuestras mejores fechas. A partir de lo que acabamos de deciros, más las propuestas que vosotros hagáis, daremos a conocer la próxima semana las fechas definitivas, las rutas que podemos fijar y los presupuestos para cada caso. Y si preferís organizar un grupo y un recorrido por vuestra cuenta, también de buen grado nos comprometeríamos a guiaros. Mientras tanto seguiremos publicando nuestros informes sobre Lemberg / Lwów, Galizia y el legado judío de toda esta región. Enseguida abriremos una entrada colectiva aparte. Seguidnos.

Todos nuestros posts sobre la herencia judía de Europa Oriental

Hungarian soldiers in Denmark

The “Hungarian tree” in North Sjælland, north of the village of Holte, in the Frederikslund forest

February 1945. The eastern half of Hungary is already occupied by the Soviets. The several months long siege of Budapest is nearing to the end, but Hitler is still dreaming. His dream is to roll back the Soviets from Hungary by setting up four completely new Hungarian divisions. Because of the advancing front, the training of the new units was unimaginable in Hungary, so the hastily set up regiments were commanded to Germany for training. However, as fate would have it, a part of these units which left the country in February 1945 did not get either to Germany or trained. An estimated 12.000 Hungarian soldiers went as far as Denmark, to take over the places of the German soldiers redirected to the Russian and Western fronts, and virtually provided various tasks of guarding under the command of the German invaders.

Curious locals surrounding the Hungarians arriving. Nørre Nebel, West Jütland

Soldiers of the 93th Regiment on patrol along the railway track of Holte, Sjælland Island

The Germans were afraid to entrust important military tasks to the Hungarians whom they considered as unreliable allies. They guarded railways and bridges, and sometimes were simply ordered out to forced labor. Even the German officers postponed their military training, not only because they considered the Hungarians as unreliable in combat situations, but also because they themselves tried to avoid being commanded to the front as long as possible. And the Hungarians’ unreliability was based on facts. They had enough of war, and they tried to cultivate a good relationship with the Danes, and what is more, with the Danish Resistance. In one case, when a Hungarian unit stationed in Copenhagen was commanded to the front, they started an armed rebellion against the German commanders. They broke out of the barracks, and the guns rattled on the streets and among the houses of Copenhagen between the fleeing Hungarians and the Germans hunting for them.

April 22, 1945. The Hungarian soldiers accommodated in the barracks of the Royal Guard rebelled against the German command promptly sending them to the front. For long hours the guns rattled in the downtown of Copenhagen between the poorly armed Hungarians and the Germans outnumbering them. The leading Danish newspaper Politiken also reported on the event.

The Hungarians captured during the uprising under German custody, in a school yard in Copenhagen

These in the Hungarian historiography almost completely unknown events are described in detail in the book De ungarske soldater – “The Hungarian soldiers” – published in 2005 by the Danish journalist Søren Peder Sørensen. This book is in many ways an invaluable publication covering a blank spot in the history of both countries. Its value as a source of military history is unquestionable: the author researched with unparalleled thoroughness both in Danish and Hungarian archives the history of the divisions arriving to Denmark, documenting in detail the fate of the units from their leaving Hungary through their activity in Denmark to when, after the German capitulation, in terms of the agreement with the British army, the Hungarian troops had to leave Denmark by crossing the Danish-German border.

Hungarian soldiers leaving Denmark. Aabenraa, South Jütland, May 1945

The 82/III battalion celebrates the liberation in Hjørring, North Jütland

However, the story does not end here. We also learn how our compatriots came home through several German prison camps, and what was the unfortunate fate of those Hungarian units which were “liberated” by the Soviets on the island of Bornholm. Few of the latter returned to Hungary from the Soviet captivity. The military historical value of the book is completed by an appendix listing all the Hungarian army units serving in Denmark, including their service station in Hungary, the names of the officers, their Danish stations with exact dates, as well as the German units under whose command they belonged. The second part of the appendix surveys by Danish districts the Hungarian units serving and often succeeding each other there.

Hungarian soldiers commanded to forced labor on the island of Bornholm, in the forest plantation of Arnager, some days after the German capitulation. A few days after the picture was taken, they fell in Soviet captivity and were interned to Siberian labor camps.

Hungarian Mass in the prison camp, Schleswig-Holstein, 31 May 1945.

But the book is not just military history, as Søren Peder Sørensen is not primarily a military historian, but a journalist. An invaluable part of the book are the stories of lives that the author has been rolling up with a great effort until today, personally contacting the Hungarian soldiers serving at that time in Denmark as well as their relatives in Hungary. One of them was chaplain János Pohly, who shared with the author his camp diary and his rich collection of photos. The Hungarian soldiers generally tried to maintain a good relationship with the Danish population, and in some cases this relationship continued for several years after the war, in the form of correspondence and occasional visits. Søren Peder Sørensen also writes the sad chronicle of a number of such connections, reporting, on the basis of the correspondence, on the hopeless situation and daily struggles of the soldiers and their families who, after their return to Hungary, were considered as “infected by the West”.

A unit of the 6th battalion of the 93rd regiment in the Høvelte camp of North Sjælland

The book is complemented by the presentation of the Hungarian soldiers who died in Denmark and the description of their graves. Apart from the latter, some very special memories of the Hungarian past are still visible in Denmark, such as the two “Hungarian trees” in the forests near Holte in Sjælland and Vejle in Jütland, on which the Hungarian patrols carved their names together with the Hungarian coat of arms and the irredentist “creed of Trianon”. And the Nyvang museum next to Holbæk in Sjælland preserves a cart which was prepared in Szentes and on which a group of Hungarian soldiers came to Denmark.

The cart of Szentes today in the Nyvang museum

Søren Peder Sørensen maintains a bilingual – Danish and Hungarian – site on the history of the Hungarian soldiers in Denmark, which is constantly updated, mostly with the personal stories of the descendants of the Hungarian soldiers. Here we can read among others the shocking story of the adopted Danish woman who after sixty years of persistent research found in the Hungarian Miskolc his biological father, who in 1945 had a romantic relationship with a 17 year old Danish girl for a couple of months until the Soviet soldiers occupying Bornholm and deporting the Hungarian soldiers broke forever the lovers apart.

A Hungarian soldier, Zoltán Világi in front of vicarage of Lønborg. To the left, the local postman.

“I am sorry to mention that my book is only available in Danish and German. A Hungarian edition seems to have little chance, for economic and other reasons” – has been read since years on the website of Søren Peder Sørensen. Why? Is really no one interested in Hungary in this episode of Hungarian history, which influenced the fate of ten thousands of soldiers and civilians, but was never properly explored? If, on the basis of the foregoing presentation, any editor feels like publishing a Hungarian version of the book, they can contact the author either on the above site, or through the medium of the Poemas del Río Wang.

The suffering Jesus. Oak carving, work of an unknown Hungarian soldier, left in the vicarage of Lønborg, West Jütland.

Dissolving: Muzhik

A Russian peasant from Kaluga, November 1941:

Deutsche Wochenschau 583

A Russian peasant from an unknown place, January 1942:

(inscription of the journal: “The relics preserved”)

Whom does it hurt

The pár perc Budapest (a few minutes of Budapest) blog reported in a sad little news on the cleaning off of a small graffiti that has survived more than a hundred years.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the era of horse railways, flag-officer György Adorján etched into the clinker wall of the University during the probably boring hours of his job whatever just came to him. The naive work, made with great care, has conserved his memory until this spring.

The graffiti since 1901 and (under the mouse) in 2012

In some cities they manage to consciously preserve such little signs of the past, and this is not only mere sentimentalism, but also image building. Because the history of a city is made especially personal, and the city itself attractive and unique by these little stories which invite you to get to know it. Where we destroy our own values so that we do not even realize the devastation, the culture of poverty has won.

Larger map

How easy it would have been to draw a frame around the interesting area, and to spare only a few bricks from grinding. No specialist of city history or protection of monuments can always watch over every detail of a renovation; the porter of the building, even if he knows the spot, is not so much concerned to intervene in others’ work; and this otherwise minimal attention, care, independence or initiative cannot be expected, it seems, either from the workers or from those directly controlling the work. Therefore we stay in astonishment only afterwards at the sight of one more piece having been planed off from our own common memory.

I think this is the same problem that we so often face during our efforts of public garden development. Such as the public worker who cuts off even for the third time the freshly planted shrubs instead of going round them, because it really does not matter to him, and anyway, when else could he play with an electric lawn mower. How much richer we would be if we could just attain the blessed state of leaving things alone.

Thirty-five stairs

The planks of the footbridge once already fully rot away, and the bridge passing over the railway station became impassable. They say that the workers going over to the Central Railway Workshop – now a dilapidated industrial monument – then broke through the walls along the railway, and walked across the rails between the trains passing every five minutes, until one of them badly gauged the time to pass across. Then the bridge got new stairs. But it was a long time ago that the decaying factory quarter got even this much attention, and the water, the salt, the time have already written their separate ways into the graining of the wood again.